1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and more particularly to an improvement of an ink jet recording apparatus of the type in which one or more of a plurality of ink containers are replaceably fitted into a carriage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, ink jet recording apparatus have characterizing features wherein printing is effected with the generation of a noise level which is kept lower than that of wire dot type or heat sensitive type recording apparatus. An ink jet apparatus may be suitably employed for printing at a high speed. Moreover, color printing is easy to be achieved. For the above reasons it is preferably used for an output device of electronic apparatus in the form of a printer, facsimile apparatus or the like.
The ink jet recording apparatus is generally constructed such that ink held in the ink containers is introduced into the recording head and it is then injected from ink discharging orifices toward a recording medium (e.g. paper) by activating an ink discharging energy generator disposed on the recording head in response to a printing pattern signal (recording signal). The ink discharging energy generator is adapted to generate energy required for discharging liquid (ink) from the ink discharging orifices. Thus, dot printing is effected by repeatedly injecting ink toward the recording medium.
To avoid connection of ink containers to the recording head by using long feeding tubes a recording apparatus of the above-mentioned type is often so constructed that ink containers are replaceably mounted on a carriage adapted to move along the recording medium together with a recording head disposed on the carriage. As a result, the recording apparatus can be designed in smaller dimensions.
In a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, a substantially rectangular cartridge type ink container is mounted on the carriage by inserting it from above or from the back side relative to the carriage.
On the other hand, the carriage is provided with electric circuits for turning on the recording head to activate the energy generator and a guide section for displaceably supporting the carriage. To allow the electric circuits and the guide section to be accomodated in a limited space on the carriage a variety of proposals have been already made from the design viewpoint.
However, since the conventional recording apparatus is so constructed that each of the ink containers is replaceably mounted horizontally in the above-described manner, it is difficult to keep the space required for accomodating therein electric circuits and making electric connection therebetween when the recording apparatus is designed in smaller dimensions. Another problem of the conventional recording apparatus is that there is a necessity for forming projections in order to build the guide section which serves to displaceably support the carriage, resulting in the design of the recording apparatus in a compact structure being achieved only with much difficulty.
Yet another problem with the conventional recording apparatus is that ink held in each of the ink containers cannot be fully consumed in spite of the fact that an ink intake port is located at the position in the proximity of the bottom of the ink container, because the bottom of the ink container is flat and moreover it is held horizontally.